David Edelstein: Sophomore year at Hogwarts —

“As I sat through this sequel — which is more entertaining than the first film but still two hours and 40 minutes — with no bathroom breaks, Mom and Dad — I passed the time wondering if AOL Time Warner had thought to protect its investment with computer simulations of Radcliffe, Emma Watson (Hermione), and Rupert Grint (Ron) over the next decade. What will these tykes look like on the other side of the Great Adolescent Divide? For a lot of child actors, the early teens aren’t pretty: Those marvelous features have a tendency to grow at different rates. (Even the comeliest kids have weird stuff happen to them. Remember when all you could register on the face of Brooke Shields was her new Frankenstein brow?) Given the billions at stake, is someone at the studio monitoring these kids’ hormones? Are there dermatologists on call night and day? We’re talking six sequels, folks. A movie about the care and feeding of the child stars of Harry Potter would be more entertaining than the thing itself. It would have some real life in it.” Slate

Also: Stephanie Zacharek: The Trouble with Harry: “Despite terrific special effects and funnier gags, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets finds a way to make J.K. Rowling’s marvelous series into a deadly bore.” Salon

What Would Jesus Drive? “Transportation choices are one of the great Christian obligations and opportunities in the 21st century…” The New Republic

Just a reminder — you can join the FmH mailing list to get every post, or a daily digest, emailed to you. You can also send comments on FmH content to the mailing list rather than just to me; perhaps start an interchange?

“The 2002 Leonid meteor storm is due on Tuesday, Nov. 19th. A NASA expert

offers practical advice to meteor watchers who wish to observe the

display.”

Anti-MAL — this utility from Thailand reputedly generates a high-pitched sound that will repel insects from your computer. Do you need this? Download at your own risk, of course. [Do any Followers read Thai?]

From a speech given by 92-year-old Doris “Granny D” Haddock, who walked across the U.S. in 1999-2000 for campaign finance reform:

“If we Americans are split into two meaningful camps, it is not conservative versus liberal. The two camps are these: the politically awake and the hypnotized — hypnotized by television and other mass media, whose overpaid Svengalis dangle the swinging medallions of packaged candidates and oft-told lies. It is all done to politically prolong the open season on us — open season indeed, as the billionaire takeover artists bag their catch for the day. And in their bags are our freedoms, our leisure, our health care futures, our old age security, our family time, our village life, our family-owned businesses on Main Street, the middle class itself, and our position of honor and peaceful leadership in the world.” AlterNet [via wood s lot]

George W. Bush, ‘Dry Drunk’? [Katherine van Wormer is a Friend (Quaker), Professor of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa, and co-author of the recent Addiction Treatment: A Strengths Perspective (2002).]

‘Ordinarily I would not use this term. But when I came across the article ‘ “Dry Drunk” — Is Bush Making a Cry for Help?’ in American Politics Journal by Alan Bisbort, I was ready to concede … in the case of George W. Bush, the phrase may be quite apt.’ Interactivist Info Exchange [via wood s lot]

Weapons Inspectors Leave for Baghdad on Monday NY Times. Since the “weapons of mass destruction” issue, however, is only a pretext for the Bush Administration’s planned prosecution of this war for its broader, insidious geopolitical objectives (Roger Trilling, Village Voice)

(as well as Bush’s emotional needs), Iraq’s efforts will be construed as provocative noncompliance regardless of the situation the weapons inspectors encounter on the ground. Going to the UN and deferring until the return of the inspectors was an inconvenience necessitated by the degree of domestic opposition (notably, that of the uniformed military) and international resistance, but will not make a war any less likely… And, of course, the purported bin Laden tape

(NY Times) serves as a bellwether of and a potential rallying point for the inflamed reaction we are likely to get from the Muslim world when we lay waste to the civilian Iraqi population and the country’s infrastructure.